"Oh, bother my neck! I'll risk it! I'll not blame you if it _is_ broken!" cried Rhoda, recklessly; and even as she spoke the last word the toboggan shot forward and bounded over the edge. _Bounded_ is the right word to use, for it did not seem to glide, but to leap from top to bottom with a lightning-like speed which took away breath, sight, and hearing. That first moment was a terrible blank and then she shot over the path itself, and was flying down, down the slope, drawing her breath in painful gasps, and staring before her with distended eyes. The girls on the bank were craning forward to watch her approach. She saw the blur of their whitened faces, and behind them a little figure running wildly forward, waving its arms and crying aloud: "Girls, girls! Jump! _Run_! Get away, get away!" The words rang meaningless in her ears, for she was dazed beyond the power of thought. The running figure drew nearer and nearer, still waving its hands, still calling out that agonised cry. The girls disappeared to right and left, but the figure itself was close at hand-- closer--closer--at her very side. Then came a shock, a jar. Evie's tottering figure fell forward over her own; Evie's shriek of anguish rang in her ears, and then came blackness--a blackness as of death! CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. THE CONSEQUENCES. When Rhoda opened her eyes she was lying in a strange bed, and some one was sitting by her side, anxiously watching her face. It was not Nurse _par excellence_, but the matron of another house, whose features seemed unfamiliar, despite their kindly expression. "You are better? You feel rested now?" she questioned, and Rhoda struggled wearily to form a a reply. "My head aches. I feel--tired!" "Yes, yes, of course. Don't speak, but lie quite still; I will stay beside you." A soothing hand was pressed upon her own, and once again her eyes closed, and she floated away into that strange, dream-like world. Sometimes all was blank, at other times she was dimly conscious of what went on around, as when voices murmured together by her side, and Nurse related how she had spoken and answered a question, and the doctor declared in reply that she was better, decidedly better! She was heavy and weary, and had no desire but to be left alone, while time passed by in a curious, dizzy fashion, light and darkness succeeding each other with extraordinary celerity. Then gradually all became clear; she was lying in the sick room where patients suffering from non-infectious complaints were taken. The pressure at her head was giving way, allowing glimmering flashes of memory. What was it?--a terrible, terrible nightmare; a horror as of falling from a great height; a sudden, numbing crash... Where has she been? What had she done? And then with another struggling gleam--the toboggan! Her cry of distress brought the nurse to her side, while she gasped out a feeble-- "I remember! I was tobogganing.--I was too quick. I suppose I fell?"